Squeeze: Classic Or Dud

Tilbrook: If I Didn't Love You was "musically inspired by Talking Heads. The line 'The record jumps on a scratch' was such a gift that I had to use it, so we sang 'If I, If I, If I, If I.'"

Difford: "I love Glenn's slide guitar solo. When he first did it I thought 'This guy's out of his tree. What's he doing?,' but it's brilliant."

"'Singles remind me of kisses / Albums remind me of plans.' They are my favorite lines on the whole album. When I used to have girls back to my flat I'd go through my record collection and find the album which had the longest side... I knew that by a certain point on the record if I didn't have my hand down her pants then it wasn't going to happen because I'd have to get up and change the record over... The best album for this purpose was Something/Anything by Todd Rundgren, because it had one side that was 30 minutes long. I'd put it on and get down to business and knew that I had a couple of minutes at the end of the album to lie on my back and then I'd have the excuse to get up and change the record."

Now, some 35 years later, Squeeze have re-recorded 14 of their classic tracks for Spot the Difference, an album of all their classic hits re-recorded in a way so painstakingly faithful to the originals that they challenge you to spot the difference.

in general, i kinda hate (and avoid) re-recordings of old stuff, but this goes beyond that. this is demented. in the metal world people will re-record albums cuz when they were young they only had five dollars to spend on making an album and now they have ten dollars. i kinda understand that. even if i never want to listen to the results.

I was just wondering today if there were any remasters of squeeze's stuff. their 80s recordings sound a little thin and wouldn't it be nice to give them a little attack. but this is not what I had in mind.

In the past year or so they've redone Argybargy, Sweets from a Stranger, Frank and Ridiculous, but they're only available as imports in the U.S. Three of them have the appropriate b-sides plus unreleased stuff from each album, except Ridiculous, which for some reason has none of the b-sides that it should. Argy is a double with a concert on the 2nd disc.

This is the perfect opportunity to get all those b-sides in the right place, not doled out piecemeal on 17 redundant Greatest Hits records. Don't piss me off, guys, or I'll... get all sullen and bitch about it on the internet.

Tilbrook has also released 3 of a planned 5 volumes of demos from the Squeeze years.

i wouldn't mind hearing it if it means improved sound quality (not that classic squeeze sounded *bad* per se -- it isn't as if they started off as some no-budget crusty-punk band). but if their idea of "improved sound quality" is the "compressed-to-an-inch-of-its-life" junk that too often passes for remastering then i can live w/t it.

I think you guys missed the point of the "Spot the Difference" album. They re-recorded those tracks so they'd have the rights to them and could license those out instead of the ones controlled by their record company.

they're pretty killer live. i mean they did that album a couple years back where they did virtually identical re-recordings of old songs, they can play everything perfectly and Tilbrook's voice hasn't really aged any.

I really love Cool For Cats, Argybargy and East Side Story, and a few selections here and there from what came after. I remember quite liking Glenn Tilbrook's solo record Transatlantic Ping Pong, too.

The first album is quite interesting though, and some of the stories surrounding its making are quite funny. John Cale apparently was so off his face he passed out during the sessions, so Jools Holland wrote "I am a cunt" on his forehead in marker. Apparently Mr. Cale was none the wiser and came into the studio STILL wearing the same slogan on his head the next day. Once he found out what the band were laughing at, he was understandably not amused and apparently he made life hell for the band for the rest of the studio time they had.

It's not their greatest, but it's not terrible when Tilbrook sings it. Paul Carrack always felt like an invader in this band, and that's the reason I have issues with both East Side Story and Some Fantastic Place.

I'd rather Carrack had sang the whole thing, he's a far superior singer to Tilbrook. Tilbrook's strengths is in the way he puts his chord sequences together. Stuff like 'King George Street' features a maddening amount of chords.

They are opening for the B-52s tonight! I'm excited about both but a little more so about Squeeze tbh. LOL re Tillbrook's facial hair. I checked out a recent clip on youtube and noticed that myself. NAGL!